PhD Student in Philosophy at the London School of Economics, researching Moral Progress, Moral Circle Expansion, and the causes that drive it.
Previously, Master's Degree in Philosophy from King's College London and Master's Degree in Political Philosophy from Pompeu Fabra University (Spain).
When I have the time, I also run https://futurosophia.com/, a website and nonprofit aimed at promoting the ideas of Effective Altruism in Spanish.
You might also know me from EA Twitter. :)
More information about me at my personal website: https://www.rafaelruizdelira.com/
Just in case some people don't know them, some useful material I've found related to introducing EA to newcomers is the following:
It's not exactly what you're asking for, but I thought it would be good to mention them. That way more people can know about them and we can also avoid repeating efforts. :)
I share many of your worries, but I think that luckily they have solutions! Here is what I've learned from my own experience in the past couple of years.
Regarding financial stability, I think it's wise to save in order to have the runway to sustain yourself for several months without income.
Regarding burnout, often my advice to others in this situation is to "try to give 80% effort", because attempting to give 100% effort leads to burnout in just a few weeks or months.
If you want to maximize positive impact in the world, it has to be sustainable. This means taking care of your physical and mental well-being by exercising and maintaining your friendships and personal connections.
Human psychology is not impartial. As biological and social beings, we need connection and companionship. I'd rather be an "80% effort" Effective Altruist for my whole life instead of being a "100% effort" Effective Altruist for 3 months.
Regarding rejection, I recommend taking rejections as a positive thing showing that you tried your best. I keep a document where I track the things I've applied to. I cross off the ones I don't get, but it's very satisfying to underline the ones that I get with a nice green color!
Even if the rate of acceptance for publications/uni acceptances/jobs is like 5%, it still means you'll get accepted to several places every year if you keep on applying and talking to EAs that can give you feedback on your application materials.
Also, don't take rejections too personally, people don't really know you. Their perception of you is based on a couple of brief documents.
Thanks for the source. I had never heard about this organization before.
Precisely the "ad hoc and informal" nature of the current system is what I criticize in the main post. I wish that there was a website maintained by CEA or a similar organization filling this role, similar to the EA Groups Resource Centre.
Thanks for sharing! I had no idea these resources existed. (I think most people don't know about them either)
Just two points:
-By a very rough estimate, I think the Wiki is missing like 70% of EA organizations, particularly the smaller ones. Seems like there's a lot of work left to be done adding them!
-How do we join the EA Operations Slack?
Interesting introduction! I have a couple of first impressions that I'd like to share: